Actor strips, industry acts

Actor Sri Reddy’s stripping protest on April 6 against the sexual exploitation of aspiring actresses in the Telugu film industry has led to the institution of a Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH) in the industry, announced on April 12. As also a sexual harassment redressal panel with participation from the stakeholders like producers, artists, directors, employees federation, lawyers, civil society, NGOs and others.

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.